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Everything posted by Betta132

Sarracenia pitchers eventually die if they become clogged with insects, but the plant stays healthy and regrows pitchers, and it gains more energy from the insects than it loses by having a pitcher die. They're made to deal with occasional swarms of insects coming through.

Carnivorous plants need to be kept in peat or sphagnum and given rainwater or distilled water, they can't stand minerals. They also mostly need very bright lights. Sundews and pinguicula love gnats, but only catch the gnats that stray out and bump them. Speaking from experience, they don't have enough catching power to wipe out an infestation, though I do have a pinguicula on a living wall that keeps the very low gnat population from ever increasing. Not good gnat control, but neat plants.

I had a peat substrate kill off some roaches, not sure what happened. It retains more moisture than you really want for roaches, also. It's OK for amphibians, but coco fiber is better as a substrate, and also better for the environment- peat is dug out of old bogs and takes a long time to renew, while coco fiber comes from coconut shells and is a byproduct of everything that uses coconut interiors.

I'm thinking of turning my current domino+peppered roach setup into a peppered-only setup and moving the dominoes to an enclosure set up to resemble their native habitat. Can't find any pics of wild domino roaches, but, seeing as how one of their common names is "desert roach" and I know they live in India, I think I have a decent idea of where they live. I have them in coco fiber with pecan leaves right now, and they seem to be doing well.
My idea for the setup would be to take the existing substrate out, sift it to remove as many nymphs as possible, then gently mix some coarse sand in- mostly for appearances. All the substrate and leaves currently in the setup would be transferred over to make sure I didn't miss any nymphs. Coco fiber with a bit of sand, pecan leaves over the top, desert wood for climbing, goat skull for hiding/chewing, kept lightly wet on one side of the enclosure and moderately dry everywhere else. They'd get a constant supply of cat food and hardwood leaves, and fruit of one variety or another now and then. The tank would get semi-indirect light from a lamp.
Any suggestions for species that would do well in a similar environment? The dominoes are the main priority, so nothing that might eat the eggcases. I'd also like something that would eat the same food, or at least something that wouldn't have to be provided with fresh food daily- I prefer pets where you can put food in a couple times a week and it lasts. I'd also really like it to be able to breed and maintain its population. Bonus points if it can be taken out and handled to show off to people. Maybe there's a suitable millipede species, or some variety of beetle? I like darkling beetles, but I'm worried about the larvae attacking eggcases or domino nymphs.

Our house is really old and has no insulation in the walls, all sorts of bugs come into the walls for winter. My guess is a couple of eggcases ended up in there from adult roaches, plus a few others found their way in. Maybe they smelled the food in there and wanted in? At any rate, most of them are out now, and I can hopefully catch the rest when I renovate the enclosure.
I just can't believe there were so many in the goat skull. They weren't the only ones, either, that's where my peppered roach adult hangs out. And he's several square inches of occupied space on his own!

There are American roach nymphs (I think) in my domino roach enclosure, and I want them out, but I don't want to risk hurting the dominoes. Anyone have any ideas on how I could build a live trap to put in? I figure I could just set it in, then sort the roaches inside and put the ones I want back. Maybe something like a pitfall made of a water bottle, baited with fruit?

Alright, I'll forego the sand. I can probably get a more scrubby/desert look without sand anyway.
There aren't very many domino roaches right now, so I think I'll let them multiply further before I try to introduce anything else. When I do, I think I'll try a handful of herbivorous darklings, they seem like a good bet.

Cypress repels insects, definitely don't use it. It's too coarse, anyway.
Without knowing exactly what roaches you're getting, I'd recommend coco fiber. It's made from shredded coconut shells, and it's very soft, fine-grained, and good for a wide variety of burrowing insects. If you don't have it when your roaches come in, just give them some crumpled, lightly damp paper towels to hide under, that'll hold them over.

That's about what I was picturing. Sandy soil with more organic matter than straight sand, leaf litter piled into crevices, fairly hot and dry but not terribly so. We have that sort of environment in Texas, and a lot of bugs seem to do really well in it.
Oh, I like the look of those guys, especially the Adesmia. Do they need a rotting piece of wood, or just a piece that's kept damp? Also, where would I potentially get some?
What about desert millipedes? I don't think I'd be able to breed them, but they live a long time, so that's OK.

Oh, yeah, that stuff should be fine. I'm not sure about it as a solid substrate, I think it would be a bit difficult for larger ones to wriggle through without getting tangled, but a few dampened handfuls mixed into the substrate would help keep things nice and moist.
Do NOT use peat. I'm not sure why, but it'll kill roaches if used as a substrate.
I have my peppereds in coco fiber with pecan leaves over the top, and there's only two of them so far, but they seem to be doing well. It works great for my domino roach nymphs, too, they love it. They can burrow without problems, the coco fiber holds moisture well, and it looks natural. Probably cheaper than that much sphagnum, too.

Sphagnum moss likes to be really damp and have very bright light over it, and it's a bog material. I don't think it'd fit the appearance, and I don't think its needs are compatible with those of the roaches.
Check your local pet shop for cork rounds, sometimes you can get what look like hollow stumps of cork bark.

So... I thought there were three, maybe five invasive nymphs in there.
Today I took the goat skull out and shook it over a bucket, and no fewer than seven American nymphs fell out. Caught those, put them in a container, shook the skull again, and more came out. 20 minutes of shaking and a small amount of poured water later, I had 30 roach nymphs in my container, ranging from tiny newborns to ones almost an inch long.
Shook the skull until roaches stopped coming out, then did the same with the driftwood, then removed the leaves and caught every roach that had nowhere to hide. Total was 47 roaches, and a few that got away.
Turns out they've been coming in a hole in the back of the lid, into the filter compartment of the aquarium, and then into the main enclosure. I've put a Vaseline barrier along the inside of the filter compartment, just on the enclosure side, so any remaining ones can get out and not starve but won't get in with the roaches I do want. Gonna put a bottle funnel trap in there tomorrow and try to catch the last few, but at least I've thinned 'em out.

Yep, overnight was enough!
Such a calm roach, very easy to handle. He did nibble on my hand at one point to see if I might be food, but he stopped when I tapped him, and he didn't try to jump or fly away at any point. Only darted around to hang out underneath my hand at one point when something startled him.

I've had my first A. tesselata adult show up today, and he seems to be in good health. I'm wondering how long it takes these guys to harden up completely, though. Overnight or longer?
Here he is, newly molted. He's hanging on the sandstone background, and that's a petroleum jelly "no domino roach escapes allowed" barrier right above him.
Threeish hours later, he was moving around and had crawled onto a magnolia leaf, so I picked the leaf and his exoskeleton up for this pic. He then proceeded to demonstrate their calm nature by crawling onto my hands and wandering around. I've put him back in the tank with some blueberries, and he's currently nestled down into the leaf litter.

You could probably just collect some dirt from a pesticide-free area and bake it to sterilize it, then use that as substrate.
Please disregard, I saw that this was the top post in the forum and thought it must be new.